The Resting Place
by RememberFics
Summary: WDZ - A couple of months after returning from Spain Diego joins his father on one of his regular visits to the resting place of Isabella de la Vega. His thoughts turn to the difference his mother made in his young life, a lesson she taught him, and the effect it has on his life today...
1. Part 1

**NOTE BY THE ACCOUNT HOLDER: THIS STORY IS NOT MINE!**

 **WRITTEN BY KARLA GREGORY**

 **This Story is a repost of a fic written by Karla Gregory! It was posted online sometime around the year 2000**. **For more information on this author and other stories by them check the profile page.**

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 _ **Original Summary:**_

 _Several weeks have gone by since Diego's return from Spain. As Don Alejandro makes one of his regular visits to the resting place of Isabella de la Vega, Diego goes with him as he had always done in the years before he went to the university. His thoughts return to the time when his mother made such a difference in his young life, and how that difference now plays out in his life._

 _ **Original Authors Note by Karla Gregory:**_

 _This story was a result of a couple of questions: What could have Diego's mother instilled in him as a child that helped him become the fox? And: What went into making the child that grew into the man that is Zorro? These questions gave me a lot to think about. This story is my attempt to answer these questions._

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 **The Resting Place**

**Part 1**

It was a beautiful spot, chosen with care. The hilltop overlooked the whole of the hacienda which was in the distance and the vista that was the de la Vega rancho. Several large trees gave a welcome shade to this restful and quiet place. The green grass and abundant wild flowers that grew this time of the year were pleasing to the eye. Diego stood beside his father as they both regarded this, the resting place of Isabella de la Vega. It was the first time in the few weeks since his return from Spain that he had visited this place to pay his respects. The two men stood together in silence, each lost in their own thoughts. After a time, Diego slipped his left arm around Don Alejandro's waist, and, after the briefest of moments, his father put his right arm around Diego's waist and pulled Diego closer. Their relationship had not been the best since Diego's return, but this they both shared; the ache in their hearts over the loss of Isabella, faithful wife and loving mother. Don Alejandro had continued to come here while Diego was in Spain and during those times he had come alone to visit the grave of his wife. He found comfort in having Diego with him now. After a time, he withdrew his arm and said a final prayer. As he crossed himself, Diego mirrored his action. He turned to go.

"Father," said Diego. "I would like to remain a while longer. Please go ahead. I will be along later." Don Alejandro nodded in understanding and with a final pat on Diego's shoulder he walked over to where his horse was tied. Diego watched as he mounted and rode slowly away. He knew how much his father still missed his wife though she had been gone these many years. He missed her too. He rubbed his forehead as he thought to himself that if his mother was still here, then it would be easier for his father to cope with the disappointment which he felt in his son. Isabella might not know why her son had come back from Spain seemingly so changed, but she would have been able to make things right between him and his father. His mother had always seemed to know just what to do. Besides, (and he smiled to himself) his mother, he was quite sure, would have already discovered his secret. It was she, after all, who had first told him about foxes. And it was she, who during that same time, opened his heart to the greater world around him. Diego leaned up against one of the trees and let his thoughts return to that time in his life when his mother had planted her seeds of who he was to become.

 **-Z-Z-Z-**

It had been a bright, sunny morning when the carriage that Diego was driving pulled up in the plaza of the pueblo. The eleven year old boy handled the mules well and his mother complemented him on it. Isabella de la Vega was proud of her young son. Although he was mischievous and prone to disappear at inopportune times, he was a good boy and she loved him very much. As she stepped down from the carriage, she noticed with satisfaction that the market place was filled with merchants there to sell their wares. Sometimes, depending on the weather and other things, there were not very many merchants to choose from. But today promised to be a good day. She enjoyed shopping and often left the servants at the hacienda once Diego had grown old enough to drive the carriage. It made him feel important to drive his mother to the pueblo.

She gave Diego the bag to carry in which she would put her purchases. He was distracted by all the activity going on, but dutifully followed behind her as she made her selections. Diego had hoped to find some of his friends from the other ranchos here today, but he could see none of them in the plaza. He was a little disappointed. He and his friends usually found something interesting to do while their mothers shopped. Just down from the tavern, Isabella stopped to look over some bolts of cloth that were displayed.

Diego leaned up against the post of the merchant's stall and looked around. Suddenly, he heard a voice raised in anger further across the plaza as Don Cesár Medina stood with his hands on his hips facing a group of peons who were trying to load a wagon with large bags of grain. Don Cesár had a whip in his hand which he cracked over the heads of the peons causing them to cower, and some even dropped their bags. This made Don Cesár more upset and more vocal. His whip began to find the backs of some of the peons.

Diego did not know what to think. He did not like seeing the peons being whipped, but his father had taught him that each Don in the pueblo was to be honored and obeyed just as he, Don Alejandro, expected to be obeyed. He looked to his mother to see her reaction. The look in her eyes was one he had never seen before. Her eyes seemed to smolder. He had seen her angry before, even at him, but never like this. Without looking at him, she said, "Diego, come with me," as she walked over to Don Cesár.

Don Cesár towered over Isabella, but she did not seem to be in anyway diminished. Diego was astonished to see the sweet smile on his mother's face as she addressed Don Cesár. No trace of her former anger could be seen. "Buenas Dias, Don Cesár. My, it is a hot day today is it not?" she said as she fanned herself with a kerchief. "You seem to have a lot of grain to be moved today. I trust it is because your rancho is doing well and you need the grain to feed your stock?"

Don Cesár greeted Isabella with all the deference due to the wife of Don Alejandro de la Vega, bowing and taking her hand. "Ah, Señora Isabella. It is so good to see you. Yes, my rancho is doing well and I am in need of this grain to feed the additional cattle and horses I am raising this year. Nothing is too good for them. Someday I hope to match your husband in the quality of his herds."

Isabella smiled back at him then affected a small frown. "It is one thing to match him in cattle and horses, Señor, but I am afraid your servants will not compare so well."

"What do you mean, Señora Isabella?" he asked. "I have as many, or possibly even more peons and vaqueros working on my rancho than does your husband. We are equal in that respect."

"Oh no, Don Cesár, I am afraid you are not," she said, shaking her head. "Why, just look at them." Here she pointed to the peons who were still cowering and struggling with the large sacks of grain. "They do not care to keep themselves clean and do not even hold their heads up as they do their work. My husband's peons look nothing like that." She sniffed just slightly, but kept a charming smile on her face as she said with just the least bit of condescension in her voice, "I believe you have a long way to go to match my husband in the quality of his servants." Don Cesár just stood there looking at Isabella. "Perhaps if you let them rest for a few moments and have a drink of water they may improve? Diego, come here, please."

Diego walked up to stand beside his mother and Don Cesár. Don Cesár looked like a mountain to him. "Here, give me your bag," said his mother taking it from him. "I want you to go to the well and draw a bucket of water to bring to these peons. With your permission, of course?" she said turning to Don Cesár. Don Cesár found that he could not withstand Isabella's charming smile and nodded for the boy to go and get the water. When Diego returned with the water he found his mother directing the peons to sit in the shade and rest for a moment. "Diego, you will serve the water, please?"

Diego handed the dipper of water to the first peon who grabbed it from him and drank greedily. As he drank, the peon's eyes met Diego's. It was as if the man was peering down deep inside of him. Then a smile broke out on the peon's face and Diego could not help but smile in return. The peon thanked him for the water and even ventured to touch Diego on the arm. Diego found that he was moved by that simple gesture. He went from man to man until all had drank their fill. The looks of gratitude and the low murmurs of "Gracias, gracias," that they gave him burned themselves into his consciousness. He looked at his mother as he served them, and she smiled back and nodded to him. It was as if they were sharing his experience. But then as he looked at the peons again, another thought came to him. The workers on his father's rancho never looked like these men. They did not have a lot of things, but they had their dignity and pride in their work. It was something he just took for granted. He had not thought much about it before. He saw now that it was not so everywhere.

"There now," his mother said to the peons when they had all had a drink. "You are looking better already. It is time to get back to work now, come on. If I may make a suggestion, try two men to each bag. I think you will find it much easier." She stepped back and gestured for Diego to follow her.

"Gracias, gracias," said the peons over and over as they got up to start loading the wagon again. With two men per bag, the wagon was soon loaded. Don Cesár stood silently with his arms crossed.

Isabella turned brightly to the man and said, "Well, it has been good seeing you again, Don Cesár. Do please come to the hacienda whenever you can and bring Doña Maria with you. Then you and Alejandro can talk of your herds of cattle and horses and the quality of your servants at length. You will please excuse us now? We need to finish our marketing and return to the rancho. Adios, Señor."

Don Cesár bowed and said, "Adios, Señora Isabella. We will be happy to come to your hacienda one evening. I will ask Maria." He bowed again.

Diego looked over his shoulder as they walked away to see the big don standing with his hands on his hips watching them leave. Don Cesár looked like a man who was not sure that he knew what had just happened to him. "Mama," Diego began, but was interrupted.

"Not now, Diego," his mother said in a low voice. "We will talk about it when we leave to go home." They quickly finished their shopping and soon Diego was driving them back to the hacienda.


	2. Part 2

**NOTE BY THE ACCOUNT HOLDER: THIS STORY IS NOT MINE!**

 **WRITTEN BY KARLA GREGORY**

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 **Part 2**

"Do you understand what you saw, Diego?" Isabella asked him when they were well on their way.

"You stopped Don Cesár from whipping his servants in the plaza," he said. "You gave them water to drink because they were thirsty and let them rest for a little while." He felt like his mother was looking for something more, but he did not know what.

"Yes, I did all of that," she said. "But there was something much more going on that you need to understand."

"What is that, Mama?"

"Diego, my son, you know from your father that you have noble blood in your ancestry?"

"Oh yes, Mama. Father has spoken of it many times." His father never bragged about their ancestry, but he was proud of it and made sure that Diego knew his lineage.

"You know that one day, you will take over the rancho and manage it as your own?" Diego nodded. Isabella paused, then said, "Today when you looked around the plaza, who did you see?"

Diego felt like his mother was jumping all around, but did his best to answer her. "I saw the merchants, and the soldiers of the cuartel. I saw Padre Felipe over by the church. I saw some vaqueros ride up to the tavern and go in, and I saw Señor Medina."

"Is that all? Did you not see someone else?"

He thought for a moment. "Oh yes. And I saw the peons and Indians working about the plaza and the ones trying to load the wagon for Señor Medina."

"What did you notice about Señor Medina's peons?"

"That they were dirty and seemed very unhappy and scared. Not like our peons at all."

"Why do you think that is?" asked Isabella watching her son closely.

"I do not know, Mama. Is it because Señor Medina whips them?"

"That is partially the reason. But it is something deeper than that. Señor Medina treats them like they are his property and not like they are people like you and me."

Diego looked perplexed. "But they are not like you and me, Mama. They are peons."

Isabella knew that Diego was speaking out of his innocence. The class structure that they lived within would lead a young boy to make such distinctions. So she said, "Diego, peons, servants, vaqueros and others are people too. They have hopes and dreams and feelings just as we do. They want to be treated with the respect due from one human being to another. We all have our places in the world, but one's station at birth does not mean that you are any the less deserving of respect than those who are "above" you. Can you understand that?"

"I think so, Mama," he replied thinking hard. These were ideas that he had not ever thought about before.

"When you were giving the water to the peons, did you not see that they were grateful for that small act of kindness? And did you not feel something stir in your heart as you looked at them?" At his nod, she continued, "What you felt was compassion, Diego. It is a very grown up feeling for a young boy to have." Diego looked up at his mother in wonder.

"Yes, Diego. A very grown up feeling indeed. Compassion is what we are feeling when we find that we want to help someone who needs us.

"So that is why I had that strange feeling come over me when I gave water to the peons," Diego thought to himself. He was glad that he had a name for it. And he was glad that his mother valued it so highly. It made him feel more comfortable with his own emotions.

Isabella continued. "Some men, like Señor Medina, never seem to grow up and mature in ways like this. If he would treat his servants as your father does, he would accomplish so much more. But he treats them as if they were possessions. That is why I mentioned that someday you will be running the rancho. Always remember that noble blood does not give us the right to be unthinking and cruel. Can you see now that it is better to treat people, all kinds of people, with dignity, respect, and compassion?

Diego nodded his head wisely, as if he had known it all along, trying to appear very mature about it. Isabella hid her smile behind her kerchief. Then she became serious again. "There is something more to be learned about compassion, my son," she said.

"What is that, Mama?"

"It is the things that compassion can lead you to do. It can be something as simple as giving a cup of water to a thirsty man, or it might mean that you are willing to give your life on behalf of others." She watched Diego's face sober as he absorbed what she had said. It was probably the first time in his young life that he had considered his own mortality. They rode on in silence for a while.

"Compassion is a very strong thing, Mama, to make you willing to die for it, isn't it?" he asked quietly, looking to her for comfort.

"Yes, Diego. Compassion is what led our Lord to die for us. Always remember that. We must try to be like him in every way that we can."

"But how, Mama?" he asked. "Must we die too?"

"No," she said gently. "I did not mean it like that. What I mean is that in the ways that are open to us as humans, we need to treat everyone fairly, to think of others before ourselves, and be willing to risk embarrassment or ridicule in order to right a wrong if it is within our power. But if you make compassion a part of you, there may come a day when you will feel that you must take a stand against injustice or corruption in order to do what is right and thereby risk your life." She hugged Diego to her. "I know this is a difficult thing for someone your age to think about, but I felt like you were ready to hear it. You just think about what I said and come and talk to your father or myself if you have any questions. We will be glad to talk to you about it."

"All right, Mama. I will," said a thoughtful Diego. They drove on silence for a while. Diego was trying to absorb everything his mother had said. This was the first time she had spoken to him in such a grown up manner. They had always talked incessantly about a lot of things Diego's curiosity being what it was, and Isabella made sure he knew what he was supposed to do around the rancho, but that had always been as mother to child. This was very different. Diego felt proud that his mother thought him mature enough to speak to him so.

After a time he asked, "Mama, what will happen to Señor Medina's peons? Will he whip them anymore?"

His mother surprised him by laughing lightly. "You know, Diego, I do not think he will," she said.

"But how do you know?" Diego was puzzled.

"When you are older and more wise in the ways of people, you will come to understand what will motivate some people, my son. I know that Don Cesár is motivated by one thing. He wants to be as good, or better than your father in everything that he does. He wants more and better cattle, better horses, and now (she laughed) he wants better servants." She laughed again. "It can be quite amusing to get someone to change his mind about something or change the way he treats someone, while all the while he is thinking it is his idea in the first place. I just gave him the idea that your father's servants were superior to his because they were clean and had their dignity. I intimated that this showed a lack in Don Cesár's servants. He will treat his servants differently, especially after the next time he comes to our rancho. You can be sure that he will watch how your father handles his peons and vaqueros. Then he will go home and try to do it better. It is his nature. He can not stand to be second to anyone if he can help it. Yes, I can see a better time ahead for the peons of Señor Medina."

She continued, "There is still something more that you can learn from this, Diego. Your grandfather had an old saying: when you cannot put on the skin of a lion, put on that of a fox. Do you know what that means?

"I'm not sure," Diego said, looking up at his mother. He smiled because she was smiling. He always liked her smile, especially when her eyes sparkled like they were doing now.

"Sometimes when you see something wrong, you can not go in like a lion using your claws and teeth," she said. "That might only make things worse. But if you go in as sly as a fox, using your mind and intelligence, you can work behind the scenes to get people to do what you want without them knowing about it. For instance, I was very upset at the way Don Cesár was treating his peons, but if I had stormed over to him like a lioness and tried to make him stop, he would have been within his rights to tell me to mind my own business. But because I knew Don Cesár and his weaknesses, I was able to use that in a subtle way to get him to stop whipping his peons today and to cause him to rethink how he treats them in general. He does not want anyone to think less of him than they do your father; and if his servants do not measure up, then that means he does not measure up. He will not stand for that and he will change. And only you and I will know why he did it!"

Isabella put her kerchief up to her mouth as she smiled again. It was not seemly that a peer of Don Cesár's should be seen laughing at him, but she could not help it.

"So you were the fox today, Mama," said Diego brightly.

"Yes, that is right," she said smiling down at her son. "A clever boy," she thought fondly.

"Then I want to be a fox too!" said the excited young man. He was intrigued by his mother's ability to be as crafty as the fox and admired her for helping the peons right under Don Cesár's nose. He wanted to be just like her.

Isabella hugged her son in happiness. "Yes, you shall be El Zorro, the fox! And a fine fox you shall be, for you are already such a scamp!" She ruffled his hair as he drove the carriage up to the door of the hacienda.

Diego and his mother were laughing and looked so happy that the servants began smiling too. As Diego looked at them, he knew he would never look at them the same way again. They were people just like his mother said they were. He would always remember that.


	3. Part 3

**NOTE BY THE ACCOUNT HOLDER: THIS STORY IS NOT MINE!**

 **WRITTEN BY KARLA GREGORY**

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 **Part 3**

In the days and years that followed, Isabella noticed a change in her son. He became quite a student of people and would often come to her with his observations about them. She watched as he began to take up for those among his friends who were being mistreated by another. And not just his friends. Anyone who was in need of help could count on her son.

Rosarita Cortez, in particular, looked to Diego as a peacemaker and defender of the weak. Isabella was amused at the young girl's infatuation with her son. Diego was faithful to come to her aid or the aid of others, and if sometimes the lion won out over the fox, well, he was still a boy and learning as he went along. But Isabella had no doubt that when her son was grown he would be a man of whom she could be proud. A strong man, but one tempered by compassion for others.

There were many other life lessons that Diego learned from his mother and his father, but the one that he learned that day from his mother he treasured in his heart, for it was the first and most profound. Her words and the example she set before him shaped his life. Diego had only been fifteen years old when his mother had slipped away from this life, leaving Diego and his father with only each other and their memories of her.

 **-Z-Z-Z-**

Diego returned to the present and looked back at his mother's resting place. He spoke silently within himself.

"Yes, Mother, I have become the Fox just as you said I would. The example of compassion that you set before me in the plaza that day has never left my heart. You instilled in me your love of people; all people. But how right you were about compassion's sacrifices. Because of what I must do as Zorro to preserve the life of my father, and to do what I can for the sake of justice and the people of Los Angeles, my father and I are now estranged.

What should have been a happy reunion of father and son after my return from Spain has become very uncomfortable for us both. His anger I can bear, but his disappointment in me as his son is a very heavy burden. But, in order to protect my father, and to keep him from doing those things that his pride and honor would demand of him, which would see him killed or branded a traitor, I am willing to shoulder this burden. It is much lighter than the one I would carry should I fail."

Diego knelt by his mother's headstone and put his hand upon it.

"I miss you, my Mother, with all of my heart," he said, voice soft with emotion. "You were taken away from us all too soon. But as you look down on me from heaven, pray for me. Pray that I will do what is right and pray that I be given strength enough for me and my father. The same inner strength that I saw in you, Mother. The strength of honor, love, ...and compassion."

After a moment's silence, Diego said a final prayer and crossed himself. He stood and looked towards the hacienda as he wiped away the tear that threatened to spill. Squaring his shoulders, he pulled his hat up on his head and walked over to mount his palomino. As he rode away from her resting place, he knew difficult times lay ahead, but he was ready to do what he must, for he felt his mother's love going with him.

THE END


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